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This study aims to examine the use of real activities manipulation by firms implicated in the stock option backdating scandal.

The real activity manipulation measures are as follows: abnormal R&D expense, abnormal SG&A expense, abnormal production cost and abnormal cash flow from operations. Using a sample of firms alleged to have backdated options during the period 1998-2006 and non-backdating one-on-one matched firms, a separate regression is run for each of the real activity manipulation measures (dependent variables) on backdating and other variables.

The authors report unusually low R&D and unusually low SG&A expenses among the backdating firms. They also find evidence of unusually high production costs among backdating firms compared to the matched firms.

The findings imply that backdating firms are more aggressive in the use of real activities to manipulate earnings and the use of real activities appears to be opportunistic.

The study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of the use of real activities manipulation by firms under investigation for fraud. The authors also add to the debate on whether the use of stock options as part of compensation aligns the interest of management with the interest of shareholders.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between CEO option grants at the beginning of the class period (BCP) and investor reaction to announcement of restatement‐induced securities litigation.

Using a restatement‐induced lawsuit sample over the period 1997‐2005, this study performs cross‐sectional linear regressions of three‐day litigation announcement cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) on CEO option grants, cash compensation, corporate governance and control variables. CARs are calculated over the three‐day (−1,1) interval relative to the lawsuit announcement date using a single‐factor market model, the CRSP equally‐weighted market index, and a 255‐day estimation period ending 45 days prior to the announcement.

A negative association is reported between CEO option grants and investor reaction around restatement‐induced lawsuit announcement.

It is possible that some restatements may have triggered a securities lawsuit but because it was not explicitly stated, they were not included in the restatement‐induced lawsuit sample. Another limitation of the study is that the qualitative aspects of the internal corporate governance variables may not have been sufficiently captured in the analyses.

The reported result suggests that the market considers CEO option grants as an indication that a restatement‐induced securities lawsuit has merit. The finding also implies that although CEO option grants may not be exercised during the class period, the market imposes higher penalties on firms that offer higher equity compensation to their CEOs at the beginning of the class period.

This study investigates the relation between lawsuit attributes that support an inference of fraud and the probability and the size of securities lawsuit settlement. A sample of 607 securities lawsuits between 1996 and 2006 is used in the analysis of the probability of settlement and a subsample of 261 lawsuit settlements is used in the analysis of the size of settlement. The empirical results indicate a positive association between the probability of a settlement and accounting irregularity, SEC enforcement action and stock offer. Accounting irregularity and SEC enforcement action are also documented to be positively related to the size of the settlement. The results imply that a stock offer supports a strong inference of fraud and the presence of accounting irregularity and SEC enforcement action in a lawsuit filing strengthens the fraud allegation and increases the likelihood of a settlement. The findings also suggest that the stronger the inference of fraud, the greater the size of the settlement. The results of this study add to our understanding of the determinants of securities lawsuit settlement. Studies using securities litigation as a proxy for fraud can use the results of this study to distinguish between fraud-related and nonfraud-related lawsuits.

Using the L. Bebchuk, Cohen, and Ferrell (2009) entrenchment index (E-index), the authors examine the relation between management entrenchment and the probability of a firm being implicated in the stock option backdating scandal. The authors conduct the analysis of this study using logistic regression, and they document a negative relation between the E-index and the probability of a firm being implicated in the stock option backdating scandal. The results of this study are consistent with the view that management entrenchment is advantageous to shareholders as it protects managers from short-term reporting pressures and egregious opportunistic behavior that can be detrimental to firm value.

For over a decade now, various stakeholders in accounting education have called for the integration of technology competencies in the accounting curriculum (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), 2013, 2018; Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC), 1990; American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA), 1996; Behn et al., 2012; Lawson et al., 2014; PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), 2013). In addition to stakeholder expectations, the inclusion of data analytics as a key area in both the business and accounting accreditation standards of the AACSB signals the urgent need for accounting programs to incorporate data analytics into their accounting curricula. This paper examines the extent of the integration of data analytics in the curricula of accounting programs with separate accounting AACSB accreditation. The paper also identifies possible barriers to integrating data analytics into the accounting curriculum. The results of this study indicate that of the 177 AACSB-accredited accounting programs, 79 (44.6%) offer data analytics courses at either the undergraduate or graduate level or as a special track. The results also indicate that 41 (23.16%) offer data analytics courses in their undergraduate curriculum, 61 (35.88%) at the graduate level, and 12 (6.80%) offer specialized tracks for accounting data analytics. Taken together, the findings indicate an encouraging trend, albeit slow, toward the integration of data analytics into the accounting curriculum.

This study examines the relation between internal control material weakness (ICMW) under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and real earnings management. Our measures of real earnings management are abnormal cash flow from operations (ABCFOs), abnormal discretionary expenses (ABDISEXP), and abnormal production cost (ABPROD). We use a sample of 1,824 manufacturing firms over the period 2004–2011 to run regressions of ABCFO, ABDISEXP, and ABPROD on ICMW and other independent variables. We find that ICMW is negatively associated with ABCFOs. Another result that emerges from this study is a positive relation between ICMW and ABPROD. Our results imply that manufacturing firms with materially weak internal controls predominantly use overproduction and excessive price discounts to manage operational activities to achieve earnings targets. As SOX Section 404 is designed to reduce the instances of firms having ICMW, our finding that ICMW firms engage in real earnings management suggests that the use of real earnings management could be reduced as SOX Section 404 succeeds in reducing ICMW.

This paper aims to examine the attitude of accounting students towards money and their ethical perceptions, and ascertains whether ethical perception of students could be influenced by their attitudes towards money.

A survey method of research was adopted, and a set of questionnaires based on the money ethic scale (MES) and existing ethical scenarios was administered to the target respondents. The MES was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis to examine its dimensionality and, by means of a cluster analysis, the respondents were classified based on similarities in attitude towards money. The relationship between attitude towards money and ethical perception was ascertained by means of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test.

The results suggest the respondents are generally ethically oriented and that the females are more ethical than males. Differences exist in terms of the attitude of respondents towards money and the MANOVA results show that money attitudes are good predictors of ethical perceptions of students.

Findings of this study demonstrate that an understanding of individuals' attitude towards money may be an important way of predicting how they will behave when faced with ethical dilemmas.

The analysis makes an important contribution to prior literature by highlighting the effect of money attitude on ethical perception.